Configuring VSS to store shadow copies on the originating drive
If you want to take disk-level, application-consistent snapshots of a Windows file system or Microsoft SQL application, you must configure Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). VSS lets you take volume snapshots while applications continue to write to the volume.
When you configure VSS, keep in mind the following;
Snapshot Manager currently has a limitation that you must manually configure the shadow copy creation location to the same drive or volume as the originating drive. This approach ensures that an application-consistent snapshot is created.
If shadow storage already exists on an alternate drive or a dedicated drive, you must disable that storage and replace it with the configuration in the following procedure.
Snapshot Manager does not support discovery, snapshot, and restore operations for SQL databases that contain leading or trailing spaces or non-printable characters. This is because the VSS writer goes into an error state for such databases.
For more information, see Microsoft Documentation.
To configure VSS to store shadow copies on the originating drive
On the Windows host, open the command prompt. If User Account Control (UAC) setting is enabled on the server, launch the command prompt in the mode.
For each drive letter on which you want to take disk-level, application-consistent snapshots using Snapshot Manager, enter a command similar to the following:
vssadmin add shadowstorage /for=<drive being backed up> ^ /on=<drive to store the shadow copy> ^ /maxsize=<percentage of disk space allowed to be used>
Here, maxsize represents the maximum free space usage allowed on the shadow storage drive. The caret (^) character in the command represents the Windows command line continuation character.
For example, if the VSS shadow copies of the
D:drive are to be stored on theD:drive and allowed to use up to 80% of the free disk space onD:, the command syntax is as follows:vssadmin add shadowstorage /for=d: /on=d: /maxsize=80%
The command prompt displays a message similar to the following:
Successfully added the shadow copy storage association
Verify your changes using the following command:
vssadmin list shadowstorage